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Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Michigan Picked to win the Conference

The Coaches and the Media picked Michigan to win the CCHA this year. The Wolverines received 5 out of 12 first-place votes in the coaches' poll and 24/66 in the media poll. Notre Dame, Miami, Ohio State, and Northern Michigan round out the top five in both polls.

The truly amazing thing is that someone in the media poll actually gave a first-place vote to the Michigan State Spartans. Clearly the fact that they return 0 10-goal or 20-point scorers and lost their only good player means they're on a fast-track to the top of the conference. I'm pretty sure the Wack Ballot Watchdog would have caught that one if this was the Blog Poll.Louie Caporusso was a unanimous first-team selection for the CCHA Preseason All-Conference First Team. Bryan Hogan was the second-team goalie (though he got the same number of first-place votes as the first-team goalie, Brian Stewart) and Chris Summers was an honorable mention.

The other big news is that the CCHA has gone to a 3-points-for-a-regulation-or-OT-win scoring system. Teams will get 2 points for a shootout win, and 1 point for a shootout loss. MSU Student crunched the numbers and determined that Ferris was the only team that would have benefited from this last year. Michigan would have finished 3 games behind ND instead of 4. It will be interesting to see if the NHL keeps an eye on how this works out. Every now and then someone throws out the idea of making every game worth three points. I'm curious to see if it will have any effect.

Also, a couple of Michigan students are trying to organize an official student organization for hockey, similar to the Maize Rage. Their goal is not to change anything about the student section as it is, but mainly to make it easier for students to travel to road games.

I love that idea. The majority of the CCHA arenas are fairly close and if a big group is going, the cost for a bus/tickets/hotel shouldn't be very much for a 2-game weekend. Maybe this says something about me, but if they had something like this when I was in school, I would've been looking to go to every road game they had a trip for. It would also be nice to see bigger groups of students sitting together at the Joe Louis games.

Ways to get involved:-There's a mass meeting in the Tap Room on October 6 at 7 pm-They'll have a table at the hockey bbq tomorrow-Send an email to childrenofyost@gmail.com-Join the facebook group Michigan Hockey Student Section

If they're looking for a dynamite event for the first year, might I suggest the Culver's Camp Randall Hockey Classic? Tickets are $15 for big groups, there are plenty of seats available, Madison is a cool city, it's not that long of a drive, and it would be a blast to go in a big group.

I'm also on board with doing whatever they can to get the cowbells/left half-right half of the student section to be somewhat in sync. Nothing burns out a good cheer faster than to have it sound like we're doing it in a round.

Lucas Lessio is off to a great start in his CCHL career, with a 7-8--15 line in 6 games for the St Mike's Buzzers. He's scored 12 points in his last 4 games and has been in on 15 of the 22 goals the Buzzers have scored this season. He was in on every goal in three of their first six games.

I don't know if I mentioned it, but his OHL rights were traded from Niagara to Oshawa a couple of weeks ago. Buuuuut....

The Generals, meanwhile, aren't saying much publicly about the situation, but appear to be having issues of their own trying to sign the 6-foot-1 forward from Woodbridge, who is rumoured to have committed to attend the University of Michigan.

so northern is picked to finish 5th in both polls but they have 3 preseason all-ccha first team guys and i think one guy on honorable mention. is this a result of differing views on where northern will finish or more so indicative of how bad all the rest of the players for NMU are?

I'm all for more students down at JLA for the games. I just hope that they are cautious about taking too many of the Yost traditions with them and be respectful to the other people in attendance near their section.Last season at the CCHA championship game there were problems with M students that blocked the view of other fans by standing during stretches of the game and engaging in unsavory chants towards Notre Dame fans. Gotta keep in mind the etiquette at neutral sites,no matter how close to A2 it is.

JMFC already stated in the Detroit papers that he will do whatever the NHL team that drafts him wants him to do. Of course after that interview fiasco, he will now remain politically correct! You need to speak with some of his "close" friends to find out what he is truly planning. But go ahead and tell yourselves whatever makes you feel better!

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"A small but enthusiastic group of Michigan fans chanted, "Titus sucks! Titus sucks!" When he was off the ice, the group chanted, 'We want Titus! We want Titus!'"
-USCHO

"Though Michigan’s student section is endlessly harangued for its vulgar language, the Yost rowdies can be counted on for at least one good laugh every season. The most recent gem, directed at Northern Michigan goalie and Finnish native Tuomas Tarkki, was a hand-lettered sign wielded by a fan sitting in the front row near the Wildcat bench. The message? The Finnish phrase ‘Tarkki on seula’, which, roughly translated, reads ‘Tarkki is a sieve’."
-Inside College hockey